How to Apply Life from Words

How can I apply the life giving words of Psalm 119:1-8 to my everyday life? What changes do I need to make in order to establish my life upon the promises of God?

The Living Word, the Word that is able to “penetrate to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and the immortal spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (Amplified)

How can I soak in the Life of these words?

We are a blessed people when our way is blameless. We are blessed when we walk in the Law of the Lord. We are blessed when we Love.

We are blessed when we observe His testimonies and seek Him with all our heart. When we walk in His ways, unrighteousness will be far from us.

The reward for obedience is blessing; rich, full, overflowing in our lives.

We wrestle. We wrestle like Jacob who refused to let go of the Angel of the Lord until he was blessed. We wrestle with deception, greed, wanting more. We walk in unforgiveness, fear and shame.

Like Jacob.

We wrestle with our own thoughts, ideals and priorities. We separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters. Our family is solitary. Alone. And our hearts wrestle as we sojourn. We lay our heads upon the hard rock of fear. Pleasure and longing for the acquisition of more and better pervade our senses. We pursue what we hope will satisfy us.

Jesus pursues us. Jesus is running after us with arms open wide, calling our name in the pursuit. His plan is to overtake us with His goodness and mercy. Tangible gifts of grace.

The compassion Jesus had for us far outweighed His love for His own life.

I can imagine Jesus as He prepared Himself for His goodbyes. His earthly father had taught Him so much. Jesus learned early the grace of humility and submission in the carpenter’s shop. It was in the carpenter’s shop that He wrestled with His emotions. The pleasure He felt as He ran His hands over the smooth wood, the feel of the sawdust between His toes, the scent of the fresh wood.Within the walls of the shop darkness settled in slowly and Jesus wrestled. His heart felt the pain of the crucifixion. The fragrance of the wood filled His senses; the setting sun cast a rosy glow through the shuttered windows. He loved it here. He loved His family and knowing the pain they would feel at His death was almost too hard to bear.Jesus turned His face, turned His face toward Calvary and set His face like flint to carry out His heavenly Father’s plan. He turned His face once more and along the walls of the shop, it was as if He could see our faces. Ours, radiating with the glory of His love. The thought of us gave Him strength and once more He turned toward the Cross and this time joy flooded His soul as He imagined you and me today in relationship with Him.His roughened hands had touched, healed and blessed. Now spikes would pierce them through. He trusted His heavenly Father’s plan of redemption implicitly. He would go willingly to the Cross; His blood would pour out and provide life for us.How often He had thought about us. The time had come. He kept His heart focused as every step He took brought Him closer to the cross. The time of goodbye was near. Mary and Joseph had housed the King of glory, loved Him fiercely and with great abandon.His heart felt it would burst with the grief of goodbye. His relationships had been deep and true. He had loved like none other. He had loved deeply, fully and known no bounds. His heart was hurting. His Father knew. The great plan of redemption intensified and once more, the hall of faith revealed our faces.Love would see Him through. Love would raise Him up on the third day. Love spilt His blood so we could live!

We wrestle with our emotions and the Father knows and understands because He made us. He wants us to come to Him, to cry out to Him and meet Him in the midst of our despair.

It is in our thought life our sin is birthed. We wrestle for purity in our thought life and the Father doesn’t want us to ignore or mask our thoughts and feelings, He wants to meet us right in the middle of them so He can minister grace to us in our weakness.

Jesus was perfect. He expressed His emotions perfectly and if we make it a habit to ‘observe’ Him and seek Him with all our heart, we will wrestle ourselves into a place of peace. A habitation for the Lord where His nature and characteristics rule the roost.

Truly, in the Father’s Keep the ways are the way of holiness, purity, never-ending mercies and steadfast compassion. All of these are yours as you rest in My embrace and allow My hands to shape you, fashion you and perfect you. You will be no longer fragmented but whole and in peace. People of integrity with the sanctified spirit, soul and body operating in unison – this is peace; this is the rest in the Father’s Keep.

All I have laid out for you is yours. Eat and drink, be filled with righteousness and the fruits thereof. Drink from the fountain of purity. Let your ear receive the Word from My mouth, it is food to your spirit, sustaining your soul and strengthening your body.

Go forth in joy and peace; stay leaning against My everlasting arms. I will keep you from falling. I will cause you to stand in a place of purity; your feet will be securely planted upon the Highway of Holiness and joy and gladness will rain down upon you as showers of blessing from within the Father’s Keep.

Lift up your heads, lift up your hands, for the old has passed away and the new has come. The joy of Jesus is within you. Everything He has, all of His qualities emanate and radiate from His life and surround you here in the Keep.

Joy is a safeguard for your souls, and here in the Father’s Keep alone it is protected and keeps you strong. Your willing sacrifice of self is the highest and best offering you can bring, for it is then we are yoked together and walk in perfect unity. Joined thus, we walk as one. (Beckoned by the King)

Comments

Love the verse you quoted from Hebrews 4:12 (Amplified Bible). And just to add a short note, verse 11 says, “Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves]…” Wrestling can be tiresome, wears a Christian out at times, especially when we find ourselves not wrestling with flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). And Jeannie, you have been sharing from your heart with God’s Word and compassion and you and Bruce both are surely BLESSED.

Hey Jeannie,
What an amazing post. What really touched me was “He had loved like none other” and I think back to myself and how I try to love, but really it can only be the Holy Spirit who can love through me as opposed to me. The other day I had a moment where I thought I’d love patience over something and I just said, “Holy Spirit, please take over.” It was a moment where I really realized that I can’t do anything by myself and I was given a glimpse of how it will be like in the future when I DO get married, that our flesh will want it one way, but we have to rely on God, on Jesus, on the Holy Spirit as we struggle with the flesh and are giving ourselves away to LOVE like He did for us.
Thanks for the post! 🙂
-Tawana

Tawana, thanks for sharing your heart with me. I pray others would come to know us as people who love deeply and reveal Jesus through our lives no matter what we are going through. May we be found faithful in our giving ourselves away to LOVE. Bless you Tawana in your giving.

Thanks for a great post…good to know that others wrestle. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Doubting Thomas. I thought it was bad to doubt until my preacher preached that Jesus welcomed his questions, concerns and doubts. It’s great to know we have an understanding Father. Thanks!

This is the first time I’ve ever reflected on the irony of Yeshua being a carpenter and carpenter’s son! To have been so intimate with wood with full knowledge of his mode of death and still humbly, willingly and lovingly create beautiful and functional objects from it – how amazing, how mind-blowing and how deep a love for us ???